The Multimedia over Coaxial Alliance (“MoCA” or “MOCA” herein) is a networking standard for home entertainment networks that utilizes a home's existing coaxial structure or “backbone.” In a MOCA network, MOCA-compliant or -capable devices communicate with one another over the coaxial backbone to thereby provide desired content, such as high-definition (HD) video and audio, to occupants of the home. For example, a MOCA network may include a MOCA-capable media center PC that serves multimedia content over the coaxial backbone to other MOCA-capable devices, such as laptop computers and HD televisions (HDTVs). As opposed to serving of such content over a typical in-home wireless network, such as conventional Wi-Fi network, the serving of content over the coaxial backbone allows for a much higher bandwidth and more reliable communication of such content. While the MOCA standard is specifically directed to utilization in homes having existing coaxial backbones, it may of course be used in structures other than homes and in homes or other structures not having an existing coaxial backbones but which have such a backbone newly installed to accommodate the network.
MOCA-capable devices can consume relatively large amounts of power during operation. This is true simply because the MOCA-capable devices are connected to the MOCA network, and even when such content is not desired and is not being used by the occupants of the home. Even if the power consumption of several MOCA-capable devices in a given home is not that large, as more homes implement MOCA networks then the power consumption of such networks in the aggregate could indeed be large, and the wasted power of such devices operating when the operation of the devices is not necessary could be significant.
There is accordingly a need for lowering the power consumption of MOCA-capable devices to thereby lower the power consumption of the MOCA network.